Cruftbox: My Box of Cruft

Feeling kinda crappy tonight. School starts for the girls tomorrow, so I need to get some rest before the morning chaos.
SXSW
SXSW people and want to be SXSW people take note that registration is underway. If you register before September 19th you can save a bunch of cash. Saving 25 bucks is enough to pay for a dinner and beers in Austin. For those that don’t know what SXSW is, check out the site about the conference. I’m definitely going again. I had a great time last March there.
Security
There is a new Critical Update for Windows. Windows users, please update your systems to avoid the next virii wave. Make sure your virus definitions are up to date. Michele got sent well over a hundred email for both the SoBig and Klez virii when she was away.
Books
Two great books from Thomas Perry have been reprinted and are available again after being out of print. Metzger’s Dog and The Butcher’s Boy are both superb crime/caper novels. Even if you’ve never read a crime novel before, you’ll love these books.
Email
Non-Outlook email user might find this funny. If you set the x-message-flag on you client, Outlook users will see a special message from you. Check out the how-to.

The last two weeks have been filled with work, travel, and a lack of blogging.
We returned from Cincinnati yesterday, and I’m getting back into the normal rhythm of home again. Hopefully I will keep you entertained better going forward.
Weblogs
Waxy has a great post with links to superb mixes from the 80s. Absolutely kick ass stuff.
Martin has changed his blog to maximum annoy factor, knowing I hate cicadas.
Squidly has a copy of a hilarious Apple Switch Ad. Mac Lover or Hater. You’ll laugh at this.
Alex at Handcoding has a recipe for Peanut Butter/Honey/Bacon/Banana sandwiches that I much try. It’s like a chokersandwich on steroids. Don’t tell my wife.
Politics
Looks like President Bush is starting to take some heat for a wrecked economy and an overseas quagmire. It’s about time. This election looks to be a humdinger of a slugfest. No centrists allowed. In an article at Salon about the election I read these tasty bits about the Democrats and thier feelings toward Bush.

It’s not just his harebrained ideological nostrums for how to reorder America and the world. They hate him and it’s personal. They hate his frat-boy smirk, his phony fly-boy act, his cringe-inducing mangling of the language, his born-again sanctimony, even his Texas twang and his godforsaken, tumbleweed ranch where only someone as fence-post-dumb as W. would hole up in August.

Hell, yeah. Let’s get this tussle started.

The wedding is over. Lisa and Mark are hitched. The entire family is tired.
Tomorrow my little family returns home.
Too tired to do anything but pack. Blogging will have to wait.

Currently I’m on vacation in Cincinnati. But I’m working.
My sister-in-law is getting married on Saturday and there is plenty to do. At the moment, I am updating one of the computers and securing it against attack. It only had 27 Critical Updates to patch…
Not to mention the anti-virus scan…
Tonight is some sort of family dinner and I actually need to wear a jacket. It’s hot here and the cicadas are loud. For all of LA’s problems, weather and insects aren’t issues back home.
California uber alles.

Today my parents, Pete & Judi Pusateri, celebrate FORTY YEARS of being married.
My mother wrote up the weekend on her weblog.
Stop for a minute and think about what it takes to go forty years in a marriage. It is an amazing accomplishment.
At dinner, I toasted them for forty years of marriage and to forty more. I hope you will too.

I’m in an Apple Store with my mother and she’s considering buying an iBook.
Help. I’m surrounded.

OK, I’m tired of the virii.
If you are a Cruft reader and you use Windows, please go to Windows Update right now and hit Scan for updates, and get your system patched up.
Do it right now. I mean it. Don’t make me come over there and yell at you.
Next, make sure your anti-virus software is running. If you don’t think you have anti-virus software, go to Symantec and download the trial version of Norton Anti-Virus. Then install the software.
Do it right now. I’m not kidding. I’d hate for your computer to be a part of the virus problem. If you don’t run anti-virus, I’m going to come over to you house with a baseball bat and smash your computer so it can’t carry any more virii.

Regularly I get comments on the past entries of this weblog. People must find the posts via a search engine and think somehow I’m watching every single post for comments daily. An understanding of how weblogs and comments work is not pervasive.
Here are the kind of comments I get on my post about Burger King Tacos:

IM OVER THE ROAD TRUCK DRIVER. I WAS IN FLORIDA A FEW MONTHS AGO AND DECIDED TO STOP AT BURGER KING AND TRY THE NEW TACOS I HAD HEARD SO MUCH ABOUT.I GOT TWO TACOS AND WENT BACK OUT TO MY TRUCK TO EAT.TIME I GOT TO THE TRUCK THE STORE WAS CLOSED. I SAT IN THE SLEEPER AND OPENED THE TACOS AND TO MY SUPRISE THE TACOS LOOKED NASTY THEY HAD TAKEN A HAMBURGER PATTY CUT IT IN HALF AND PLACED IT INTO THE SHELL WITH CHEESE LETTUCE AND SOME KIND OF SAUSE PUT INTO A MICROWAVE AND HEATED IT UP. I ATE BECAUSE IT WAS LATE AND THEY HAD ALREADY CLOSED. BIG MISTAKE I GOT SO SICK AND STILL GET A SICK FEELING EVERTIME I PASS A BURGER KING. I AM SO GLAD THEY STOPPED SELLING THEM BUT I WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO BRING MYSELF TO EVEN TURN AROUND IN A BURGER KING PARKING LOT LET ALONE GO IN AND EAT.
Posted by: TED on July 22, 2003 07:18 PM

I LIVE IN PENNSYLVANIA. WHY DID YOU STOP SELLING THE TACOS?????? FINALLY AFTER YEARS OF NO MORE JACK IN THE BOX FOUND TACOS THAT ARE VERY MUCH LIKE THEIRS AND I JUST LOVE THEM AND SO DOES MY DAUGHTER. PLEASE BRING THEM BACK; GUESS I’LL HAVE TO GO BACK TO MCDONALDS BECAUSE THE TACOS ARE WHY I WENT TO BURGER KING
Posted by: LINDA on August 19, 2003 12:10 PM

Ted had a bad experience and Linda thinks I am Burger King. There’s not much I can do to help these people.
Sometimes I do get comments that need a reply. Take a look at some of the comments in the post about Red Licorice Soda:

this is jeffrey patskan and i would like to try your red licorice soda how can i purchase it or where can i buy it thankyou. and you can e-mail me thanks and have a nice day.
Posted by: jeffrey patskan on August 4, 2003 12:10 PM
this is jeffrey patskan and i love pepsiblue soda and it is my favorite soda thankyou. and here is a blacklicorice flavored sodadrink for you to try and you take pepsibluesoda and you mix it with a little orangedrink and you get a greenish darkgreenish color and that is how you make blacklicorice flavored soda thankyou and if you try it you mighnt like it too. and you can also share this drink with kids too. and you can e-mail me thanks and have a nice day too.
Posted by: jeffrey patskan on August 19, 2003 06:33 PM
this is jeffrey patskan and i really do love pepsiblue soda thankyou. and i hope that you enjoy my blacklicorice flavored sodadrink because i tried it when i made it and it was sweet and good thankyou. and i like all kinds of soda too thankyou. but my favorite is pepsiblue soda and my favorite one also is the new blacklicorice soda drink that i made thankyou. and you can e-mail me at jeffreyp18201@yahoo.com thankyou and take care and have a nice day too.
Posted by: jeffrey patskan on August 19, 2003 06:53 PM

Not only does Jeffery come to realize that I am not selling soda, but attempts to share his knowledge with me. I can appreciate that. Here’s what I wrote back to Jeffrey:

Jeffery,
Thank you for your idea for black licorice soda. The next time I get to the store, I’m going to pick up some Pepsi Blue and Orange Soda and make Black Licorice Soda.
Keep up the good work!
Thank you,
-Michael

Here is a recent comment that I love:

fuck this fuckin website, fuck…
Posted by: pj on August 16, 2003 09:42 PM

Evidently pj has some issues with my site.
Anyone else get weird comments on their sites?

I was perusing the Cyberguys catalog a few weeks ago and I saw the USB Coffee Cup Warmer for sale. Cyberguys has tons of neat stuff and I’ve gotten several items from them before.
Intrigued, I bought one. Today was the first test of it. As usual, I documented the event.

This is the package as it arrived. Looks good.

Continue reading “USB Coffee Cup Warmer”

Lessee here, the weekend is almost over and I still don’t feel rested. Perhaps I got too much sleep. Perhaps the music will get me going.

On Saturday night, I went out with James and saw SWAT. I was pleasantly suprised. SWAT is a good action movie, no more, no less. The movie had the feel of the TV show (which remember watching on TV back in the day) and didn’t go off the deep end in effects or plot. The basic ideas were plausible as opposed to the Bad Boys 2 invasion of Cuba.
At the movie I saw the trailer of Timeline. I read the book it’s based on a while ago. It looks to me like they changed the plot quite a bit. Crichton gets involved with the filming of his novels, so I’m sure it will be fine, but I hope they keep many of the key parts of the book in the movie.
Today, we went to go see Steel Conflict, a robot war event.

I’ve been to a robot fighting event before and knew it could be fun. The event itself was at the Petersen Automotive Museum. An amazing place in itself.
Unlike the last event I went to, this event was outdoors. The sun made it harder to see what was going on inside due to glare, but it was fun nevertheless. People really put a lot into the robots and it’s great to watch them go into battle.

This is my favorite robot. It’s 7 feet in diameter. On the inside you see those red areas. The inside of the robot spins like a washing machine. When another robot goes on top, it starts getting bludgeoned by the spinning bars. Quite impressive when you see the robot shredding the wheels on another robot.
I’ll have to keep an eye on the Robot Fighting League site to see when the next battle is scheduled in LA.